Sunday March 10th @ 4:00 PM
PARADISE PLAZA
3547, 151 NE 41ST ST
MIAMI, FL 33137
Post-screening conversation with Marketa Uhlirova, Tom Gunning and Vitoria de Mello Franco, chaired by Christian Larsen
Fashion film has emerged as a cutting-edge area of creative practice in the early 21st century, compellingly meshing expressive possibilities of fashion with those of the moving image. As today’s luxury brands have grasped its great capacity to communicate a “brand story,” fashion film has come to epitomize a brave new world of covert advertising in the eyes of many.
In response to that, this program of fashion films from the last 20 years emphasizes the considerable value and creative power these films have beyond their immediate commercial use. After all, fashion image-makers’ working methods (and budgets) have typically been more akin to those of artists and avant-garde filmmakers than those seen in commercial productions.
Focusing on fashion film as a means of investigating the properties of both dress and cinema, these films highlight the great potential of this form to enrich and challenge established conventions of fashion and beauty imagery.
“Afterwords”
UK 2000. Dir. Marcus Tomlinson. Fashion by Hussein Chalayan.
“Dynamic Blooms”
UK 2011. Dir. Nick Knight & Tell No One. With Jac. Styling by Alister Mackie.
“The Elegant Universe”
UK 2014. Dir. Nick Knight. With Alexia Wight. Creative Direction and Styling by Amanda Harlech.
“The Dress”
UK 2016. Dir. Barnaby Roper. With Gwendoline Christie. Fashion by Iris van Herpen.
“Headpieces for Peace”
USA 2014. Dir. Jessica Mitrani. With Catherine Gontovnik, Justine Harari, Cucu Diamantes, Orly Anan, Florencia Minitti, Zelina Blagden. Fashion by threeASFOUR.
“Alexander McQueen Autumn Winter 2013”
UK 2013. Dir. John Maybury for Alexander McQueen.
“Divinas”
UK 2018. Dir. Vitoria de Melo Franco. With Jojo Rodrigues, Catherine Caiado, Ana Paul Patrocinio.
“Wonderwood”
UK 2010. Dir. Brothers Quay for Comme des Garçons.
“Smythson Wonderland”
UK 2015. Dir. Quentin Jones for Smythson.
“The Sound of COS”
Netherlands 2014. Dir. Lernert & Sander for COS. With Foley artists Freddie Webb and Joe Farley.
“Black”
UK 2018. Dir. Isaac Lock for NOWNESS. With Isaac Lock, Elena Saurel, Daniel Sallstrom, Molly Smith, Ranny Cooper. Styling by Elizabeth Fraser-Bell.
Marketa Uhlirova is an art historian. She is a co-founder and director of the Fashion in Film Festival, and a Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Her film programmes have been hosted by leading arts venues including Tate Modern, Barbican, Palazzo Grassi, Danish Film Institute and Museum of the Moving Image, New York. Marketa is also the editor of Fashion in Film’s publications, including If Looks Could Kill: Cinema’s Images of Fashion, Crime and Violence (2008) and the award-winning Birds of Paradise: Costume as Cinematic Spectacle(2013).
Tom Gunning is Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, and the College Classics at University of Chicago. He has written extensively on problems of early and silent film, American avant-garde cinema and Hollywood film. He has published two books, The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (winner CINEMA & Cie award) and D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph, and over one hundred articles, catalogue essays, and book chapters.
Vitoria de Mello Franco graduated from a BA in Fashion Communication and Promotion at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Working between contemporary art and fashion, de Mello Franco directed works for Visionaire, Archaeology of Fashion Film and Stella McCartney among others. Last year she was invited to exhibit her series Display is a Rehearsal as a video installation at the London Design Festival. Earlier this year, her short film “Divinas” was released by NOWNESS and nominated for Best New Director at the Fashion Film Festival Milano.